Not sure hounds tounge is it. I looked up several images of hounds tounge online and even found some of hounds tounge root, and it looks quite different.

Hounds tounge grows quite tall, and has flowers.

This plant was very low, had just those few leaves on it, and it appeared to be dieing back (about the same time the may apple was dieing back).

It sure did not look like it was going to go on and make a larger top or flowers. Looked like it was about done for the year to me.

If there is any of it still left when I go back in September I will check out the leaves a little closer. I don't recall them being as you described hounds tounge leaves, but can't really remember now.

It looks like wild comfrey to me from what I can see of the picture. Wild comfrey is green and has narrow tobacco like leaves, and when dying back turns yellowish. It is low growing and the leaves are about a foot or so long.

I looked around online and found a pic of wild comfey and it does look close.

In the image below, what I found is on the left, and wild comfey on the right.

Similar, but still not exactly the same. The wild comfey does have a stem that grows up above the _base_ leaves and has a few leaves off it and then a flower spike on top.

That thing I found, all I saw on several that I found was just those _base_ leaves, no stem rising up. Could be because I was seeing it later in the year. Perhaps the flower spike only shows up in earlier spring - not mid summer - not sure.

That's the problem with common names. I don't know the latin, but what is on left is what people around here call "hound's tongue". The hounds tongue images that come up in google are not the same plant. And an even different plant comes up under that common name on the usda plants data_base_. I hiked a good 15 miles in the woods this weekend and saw a lot of that plant in the same stage of development. Curious to find out the latin name.

Here is some information that I got from a botanist at the University.....

He suggests that it may be American columbo (Swertia carolinieinsis). Columbo is a monocarpic perennial herb in the Gentianaceae that forms a basal rosette of large, fleshy leaves. It persists as a rosette for years but eventually bolts, grows rapidly to about five feet high, and produces a spectacular inflorescence in May. It blooms only once and, after setting fruit, it dies. The picture was a little small for him to be sure it is this species, but if the leaves are large and fleshy it probably is. Hound's Tongue is noticeably hairy on the leaf, whereas columbo is glabrous or nearly so. Google the latin name and there are plenty of pics.

I looked around at several images of American Columbo online and I would say 99.9% sure that is it.

Here is a nice pic showing it with several in the Bolt to Flower Spike stage and a few without the spike.

Thanks

TNhunter

I found the info below on it's Medicinal use..

Medicinal use of American Columbo: The powdered plant is applied externally to ulcers as a poultice. The plant is a feeble simple bitter. The root is cathartic, emetic, stimulant and tonic. When dried it is a simple bitter that can be used as a digestive tonic in a similar way to gentian root (Gentiana spp), but the fresh root is cathartic and emetic. The root is used in the treatment of dysentery, stomach complaints and a lack of appetite. It should be harvested in the autumn of its second year, or the spring of its third year.